Get your survival kits ready, because the apocalypse is on its way! For the first time ever, AT&T has unseated Verizon from its throne as number one in J.D. Power’s Wireless Carrier Customer Care Index, and Samsung has surpassed Apple as number one in satisfaction in the American Customer Satisfaction Index report covering smartphone customers.
In May, the ACSI report, which surveys over 70k US consumers, showed Apple continued its lead for customer satisfaction, but Samsung was quickly closing the gap. The new ACSI report covering only smartphones shows Samsung has since been able to surpass iPhone thanks to strong scores from its Galaxy S III and Note II.
Samsung’s 2012 flagship handset, the Galaxy S3 received an ACSI benchmark of 84 (on a 0 to 100 scale), beating Apple’s iPhone 5 at 82, the company’s most recent smartphone offering. Another Samsung device, the Note II, shared the top position with an 84 score. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was not included in the study, as it was performed just prior to the device’s launch.
However, just because we can, let’s look at the survey this way: Apple’s top three phones in the survey, The iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 4 took 3 of the top five spots. So it has that going for it, which is nice.
While U.S. survey participants gave Samsung top marks, Apple came out on top in numerous countries, Samsung’s home country of South Korea included. According to the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) in South Korea, which uses the same technology as the ACSI, the iPhone 5 has higher customer satisfaction than Galaxy S III. At 76, Samsung lagged behind Apple for overall customer satisfaction. The company did however make a gain of 7% in the survey.
In other news sure to send readers barricading the door against the oncoming zombie hoards is the news that JD Power’s 2013 wireless customer service satisfaction survey shows AT&T coming out on top in customer service and many other categories in the survey, with Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile following in its tracks.
For the first time ever, AT&T ranked highest in wireless customer service satisfaction, with an overall score of 795. AT&T did particularly well in the walk-in and online contact categories, and ranked above the full-service average in four out of five categories.
